I've been thinking what could be an actually worthwhile upgrade to my Z while I'm still in the overall learning process, and one logical idea I came up with is better cooling system. Can't push the car in higher rpm that long without better cooling, right? Any thoughts and/or suggestions regarding this matter?

Nice or actually works? I'd imagine not having a hood at all would work, but that's not good for numerous reasons. Also, aren't a good deal of bumper and maybe even hood vents there just to help cool brakes?

Why you need to worry about cooling on a stock car is beyond me unless you've had overheating problems. If you were going turbo and throwing a big intercooler in the grill I'd understand, but there's no reason the stock cooling system can't handle a stock car. If you're worried, just throw a thick aluminum radiator in there and call it good.

Stock oil pressure gauges are generally slow to respond, especially on older cars. They also have no graduation markings or markings with little to no meaning.

My Talon's stock gauge was a great example. It had a low and a high line, and a line relatively in the middle. The high and low lines were not, as you might think, the acceptable operational range, you had to go 1/2 centimeter away from those lines to get to that point. Then there was that center line, which I never figured out what it meant. It wasn't cruising pressure, and it wasn't idle pressure, it appeared to just be a random line somewhere in between.

I did however, despite it being slow and relatively information-less, figure out over time how to read it to enough of a degree that when the sender for my idiot light failed, I was able to determine, without removing myself from the driver's seat, that everything was working just fine. Would I have trusted it to the extent that I never would have bought an oil pressure gauge for the car if I'd kept it? Of course not. But it did do enough for me on a relatively stock car to not be completely worthless.

Honestly, I only suggested gauges so that I could give you something to look at getting, but honestly if you haven't done anything serious to the car's engine in terms of modifying performance, then you won't have any need whatsoever to upgrade your engine's cooling systems.

My advice? Get the coolant flushed and try taking it to the track. If you notice on a track day that your temperature gauge is getting uncomfortably high then you can do something about it.

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Should I look into a possible ECU swap or a means of hooking the thing up to a laptop? That could take care of quite a few monitoring and electronic-tuning things.

To what end, though?

FURTHER EDIT:

I should point out that, for the money you spend on playing with engine management, you'd be better off investing in a decent intake and exhaust setup. You are not going to screw much more power out of a 350Z on a budget unless you go forced induction.

Why you need to worry about cooling on a stock car is beyond me unless you've had overheating problems. If you were going turbo and throwing a big intercooler in the grill I'd understand, but there's no reason the stock cooling system can't handle a stock car. If you're worried, just throw a thick aluminum radiator in there and call it good.

This.

If the car is stock, and it's built by a reputable company, then I really hope that the stock radiator and cooling system are built to handle the car's stock limits.

Just to clear something up- Switching to an aluminum radiator will NOT increase the cooling capacity of a cooling system, all other factors being the same (Ie SIZE). Aluminum is a worse conductor of heat than (most) factory radiator cores (usually copper). If theyre bigger in size, then they get some cooling benefits- otherwise, nada.

But wait sideways! Why do you always see them you may ask? Well a couple of reasons. For starters, lots of "race" cars run them, so they get brownie points for being race tech. Two, BLING, its hard not to see that silvery shiney piece of bling and not be impressed. So of course kiddies who dont know much go oh, it must be better for cooling- I want it! Anyways, so why do race cars run them? Because theyre lighter, a LOT lighter- and its a good way to save some weight. Depending on the size of what were comparing you can easily see a good 10-15 pounds of weight saved by swapping over to an aluminum radiator. Thats more weight than most cars save by swapping to those cheap Cf reinforced Frp hoods, for a lot cheaper, cfrfrp is not to be confused with actual carbon hoods- and again, most cases. Some cars save 30 pounds alone by swapping to even cfrfrp hoods. Then of course theres some that GAIN weight by swapping over)

Like someone mentioned before me helping air move through the radiator is going to be your best way to help cooling. Doing what you can to ensure air has to go through the radiator is a good example- Ie the shroud. Hood vents if in the right pressure area can make a HUGE difference. Air no longer gets forced into a pressurized engine bay, but has a happy way to vent into a low pressure area.

Now the question is- Why is this mod warranted? Whats your goal with the car? If you want some bling by all means go nuts with it. All depends on what you want and what you plan to do. As always, asking questions is encouraged. There are no stupid questions, just stupid answers.

Thanks for the input so far everyone. If I wasn't clear before, my thoughts on this are as follows- sure stock parts can handle stock power, but for how long? That time frame do I get to squeeze everything out of the car before it starts overheating?

Oil cooler sounds like a good idea; if stock radiator isn't going to do that good of a job, a bigger/lighter one perhaps.

I'm still learning these technical things and trying to plan from where to start upgrading.

Plan is to get a hang of RWD and its stock limits, then start hopping it up. If money opens up before all of that, think what would most likely be wanted down the line and get that done. I already know I'll most likely want wider/dest rims and tires for max grip. Would definitely boost the car few years down the line, so maybe some related upgrades that are affordable in the meantime.

2. it may affect downforce. not sure if it could improve or worsen, as there are different factors to that.

I cant think of a single reason or a single example where a drop vent hood would HURT downforce. In every case i can think of it improves it. No matter how you look at it youre venting air out of the engine bay that would have otherwise been trapped in there.

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sure stock parts can handle stock power, but for how long? That time frame do I get to squeeze everything out of the car before it starts overheating?

As long as its in working order, for the rest of the cars life. Theres no black magic behind how coolant systems work. Coolant is pressurized and flowed through a radiator regulated by a thermostat. As long as more heat is being removed through the heat exchanger than is being put in, itll work flawlessly. If parts go out, then you have issues, corrosion in the block/head, thermostat, gunk in the radiator/block fouling up the passages, etc. This falls into the category of "maintenance" however. For your set up, theres really no need to "upgrade" if the set up is stock. If youre doing something to throw in more heat to the system than it was designed to handle (ie youre making more power, are going to track the car HARD, etc) then consider upgrading. Otherwise, Meh.

I cant think of a single reason or a single example where a drop vent hood would HURT downforce. In every case i can think of it improves it. No matter how you look at it youre venting air out of the engine bay that would have otherwise been trapped in there.

As long as its in working order, for the rest of the cars life. Theres no black magic behind how coolant systems work. Coolant is pressurized and flowed through a radiator regulated by a thermostat. As long as more heat is being removed through the heat exchanger than is being put in, itll work flawlessly. If parts go out, then you have issues, corrosion in the block/head, thermostat, gunk in the radiator/block fouling up the passages, etc. This falls into the category of "maintenance" however. For your set up, theres really no need to "upgrade" if the set up is stock. If youre doing something to throw in more heat to the system than it was designed to handle (ie youre making more power, are going to track the car HARD, etc) then consider upgrading. Otherwise, Meh.

I cant think of a single reason or a single example where a drop vent hood would HURT downforce. In every case i can think of it improves it. No matter how you look at it youre venting air out of the engine bay that would have otherwise been trapped in there.

As long as its in working order, for the rest of the cars life. Theres no black magic behind how coolant systems work. Coolant is pressurized and flowed through a radiator regulated by a thermostat. As long as more heat is being removed through the heat exchanger than is being put in, itll work flawlessly. If parts go out, then you have issues, corrosion in the block/head, thermostat, gunk in the radiator/block fouling up the passages, etc. This falls into the category of "maintenance" however. For your set up, theres really no need to "upgrade" if the set up is stock. If youre doing something to throw in more heat to the system than it was designed to handle (ie youre making more power, are going to track the car HARD, etc) then consider upgrading. Otherwise, Meh.